Installation of a gutter or eave trough system at the lowermost edge of a sloping roof in order to collect and carry away rain water has been a common and long standing practice. Such a system can be expected to operate effectively and efficiently so long as the eave trough is kept clear of accumulations of snow, ice and debris such as leaves and twigs. It has been the experience of homeowners and other individuals responsible for building maintainance however, that eave troughs tend to accummulate material which, if not removed periodically, tends to obstruct and block the eave trough itself as well as the downspout which is intended to carry the rain water away. Additionally, it is frequently the circumstance that such debris is washed down the downspout and plugs the downspout or, in those cases in which the system is connected to an underground storm sewer, clogs the underground system. Accordingly, it is the adopted practice of many individual homeowners and building maintenance men to undertake the arduous, messy and sometimes dangerous task of cleaning debris out of eave troughs one or more times a year.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,887,073 issued May 19, 1959 entitled Self-Cleaning Gutter and Downspout Attachment to Collect Debris directs itself to this problem by proposing a gutter having a water carrying pipe with spaced orifices therealong immediately adjacent to or within the eave trough. This pipe may be used to provide a flow of water which is intended to aid in cleaning the eave trough of debris. The proposed system, however, has a number of disadvantages which are not easily surmounted within the context of the disclosure of the patent. One disadvantage is that the system requires the difficult and dangerous installation of a lengthy gutter containing a pipe or other fluid conduit in a not readily accessible location. Indeed, this disadvantage looms so large as to discourage all but the most enterprising homeowner from installing such a system.
A second disadvantage of the system proposed in the above referenced patent lies in the fact that the spaced orifices along the horizontal pipe act merely to squirt water into the eave trough at right angles to the length of the eave trough so that no advantage is gained from the velocity of injection. The injected water, when directed at the bottom of the eave trough, may be effective to agitate and loosen collected debris, but movement of the debris along the length of the eave trough to the downspout is restricted to the gentle gravitationally induced flow which results from the slight pitch of the eave trough. In many circumstances, this gravitationally induced flow is not adequate to move any debris except that which is lighter than water and which can float along the length of the eave trough. Accordingly, materials such as sand or grit which washes off of many types of roofing shingles as well as gravel which may have washed off an industrial roof remain and accummulate in a flow obstructing manner in the eave trough. A third disadvantage is the difficulty inherent in the installation of such a system which requires adjacent sections of gutter to include fluid tight coupling of the associated lengths of pipe or fluid conduit. Finally, the system disclosed in the prior patent is not one which involves the simple modification of pre-existing gutters but is one which requires disassembly and removal of the previous gutter with the substitution, at great expense, of the patented system.
Thus it can be seen that a need exists for a flushing system which may be safely and easily and inexpensively installed by an inexperienced homeowner and which has the capability of propelling debris, both lighter and heavier than water, along the length of the eave trough so that an efficient, effective, and complete gutter cleaning operation can be accomplished. The invention of the present application is such a system and cures the defects of the above cited patent.